- City:
- Chico, CA
- Site Type:
- Parks and Recreation, Swimming Pools
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
Sycamore Pool is a large, beautiful, outdoor swimming facility built on Big Chico Creek at the One-Mile Recreation Area of Bidwell Park in Chico California. Hence, the pool is also known as One-Mile Pool.
he creek was dammed by the city in the 1920s, but the pool was cemented and finished out by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s, as part of several WPA improvements to Bidwell Park.
There are tile depth markers every six feet or so along the pool’s edge. The lifeguard chairs look original, but that is uncertain. A bridge across the dam was built later using state Land & Water Conservation Funds.
Source notes
William R. Lawson. "Achievements, Federal Works Agency. Work Projects Administration, Northern California." 1940: 43.
https://gregvanderlaan.com/happyboy.aspx
Ken Smith, "Butte County gets a New Deal," Chico News & Review, May 31, 2012. https://www.newsreview.com/chico/content?oid=6160692
Site originally submitted by Gray Brechin on October 23, 2010.
Additional contributions by Greg Venderlaan, Richard A Walker.
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The source for this picture is at a website that is no longer active. Three Pictures of the pool are at: Chico, CA Pool
I went to Chico again this summer and swam. Thanks WPA… It’s a great pool.
The old picture has been replaced by a series I took in the Winter of 2018. What a gorgeous pool! I asked a couple of local women if they knew the provenance of the pool, which is unmarked, and they were delighted to discover it was from the New Deal (one of them had learned about the New Deal in school; the other had never heard of it).
My 11 year old grandson swam the length of Sycamore pool on 6/23.,
We are so proud of him. Excellent swimmer.
I just can’t find any information on the length of the pool.
The pool is 500 ft in length